Around The World (Wide Web): MWP, Kobe, Summer League, Dwight, Nash

From Broderick Turner, LA Times: World Peace, 33, told reporters Monday at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas that he was signing with the Knicks. He cleared waivers Sunday after being let go in a cost-cutting move by the Lakers under the league’s amnesty provision Thursday. Apparently the lure of playing near where he grew up in Queens, N.Y., was more than enough for World Peace to choose the Knicks over the Clippers, who were also interested in signing him. But the most the Clippers could offer World Peace was the veteran’s minimum of $1.4 million.

From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: Dwight Howard wants touches in the post — and he’s pretty good in the post despite not having a lot of counter moves to fall back on. He shot 44 percent on post up situations last season despite the injury, 49 percent and 50 percent the two years before that. But in Mike D’Antoni’s style of basketball, just throwing the ball into the post and waiting for him to make a move or kick the ball back out stalls the ball and player movement out. Guys stand around, the offense withers.

From Ramona Shelburne, ESPN LA: So, about that torch pass? The one Dwight Howard was supposed to take from Kobe Bryant one day …Call it a failed exchange, dropped baton, whatever metaphor suits you, but lost in the immediate aftermath of Howard’s decision to bolt for the Houston Rockets is the fairly urgent need for a new casting call for the Lakers’ next leading man. Bryant, of course, said last week that he fully intends to retire as a Laker and doesn’t believe there will be a problem working out an extension to his current contract, which expires after the coming season. So for another two or three or four more years, he’ll hold it down.

From Josh Basali, Lakers Nation: Kobe Bryant is healing up faster than most people would have predicted. Recently, the Mamba told Chris Douglas-Roberts that he is three months ahead of schedule in the recovery process and rehab of his Achillesa surgery. CDR is currently playing for the Lakers’ Summer League team. Chris told reporters that Kobe and him text regularly and that the Vino told him he is ahead of the projected schedule. According to Drew Garrison of Silver Screen and Roll: ”He told me he’s three months ahead of schedule, which is very Kobe-like,” Douglas-Roberts said.

From Drew Garrison, Silver Screen & Roll: This isn’t Chris Douglas-Roberts’ first time trying to earn his way onto the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster. He made it as far as the Lakers’ preseason roster last summer but ultimately did not make the team. He would go on to sign with the Dallas Mavericks, where he played only six games for a total of 63 minutes. He still talks to Kobe Bryant though, who he spoke glowingly of after the Lakers 77-65 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers Monday. You could hear a flicker of excitement when he spoke of the Lakers’ superstar.

It will be a very, very interesting wait & watch to see what YOUNG SUPER STAR is willing to join the Lakers and play Tonto to Kobe’s Lone Ranger in the summer of 2014. Here’s hoping Kobe reaches all his individual goals in 2013-2014. So come the following season the franchise can get back to the real business at hand…title #17.

There is virtually no chance that Larry Bird would let Paul George come here; George is restricted. So are Wall and Irving. There are no “young superstars” who are UFAs next year, so, as usual, Sid is off the mark.